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To Seal or Not To Seal
There are two concerns (or frustrations) that I have to deal with. One has to do with set seals. My inventory (for the most part) all predates 2012. There are few sets as recent as 2014, but the vast majority are 2012 or earlier. In some cases, the sets exceed 20 years of age.
Two of the set container types (cardboard boxes and plastic cans) have a seal situation that is difficult to resolve with any certainty.
For cardboard boxes, they came in two primary types: a thinner box with an internal cardboard tray, and a slightly thicker box with no internal tray. For the first type, they were supplied with a round vinyl seal with adhesive. For the latter type, the box was glued on 3 or 4 seams, including both end flaps.
At anything approaching 10 years of age (much less 20 in some cases) some/many seals have failed. For the first type. The vinyl seal could simply have lost it’s ability to seal (adhesive failure) or the seals may have dried out and cracked in two. For the glued seam boxes, I have seen instances of glue becoming old and no longer holding the box together.
I have observed random instances of different copies of the same set with different seal configurations. I even recall one set where every copy obtained was shrink wrapped.
For the plastic cans, TLG used several seal types. Some were adequate for the expected 1-3 year shelf life, and some exhibited failure coming out of the factory cases. I have seen seals which were easily torn, and I have seen seals that lost their ability to remain adhered.
None of the above implies that a set is used, more correctly it implies a ‘degraded seal’. Time is not friendly to LEGO seals.
What this all leads to is this … with the passage of time, my inventory is degrading (as to passing the seal test). This has led to some consternation with buyers. Buyers either don’t understand what happens over two decades, or they have some reason for requiring a seal that has withstood the test of time (as tho it was manufactured yesterday). Many of those same buyers are not buying for personal consumption, they are attempting to buy for resale or collectability.
I am left with the quandary of how to describe these sets. I do not have the time to dig thru my inventory and try to sort out sealed vs failed seals. It’s not going to happen. Even if I did. The seal situation is fluid, and will continue to evolve after the triage. New/Complete doesn’t feel right either. We have no descriptive verbiage for New/Degraded-Seal.
My second concern will be described in another post.
Two of the set container types (cardboard boxes and plastic cans) have a seal situation that is difficult to resolve with any certainty.
For cardboard boxes, they came in two primary types: a thinner box with an internal cardboard tray, and a slightly thicker box with no internal tray. For the first type, they were supplied with a round vinyl seal with adhesive. For the latter type, the box was glued on 3 or 4 seams, including both end flaps.
At anything approaching 10 years of age (much less 20 in some cases) some/many seals have failed. For the first type. The vinyl seal could simply have lost it’s ability to seal (adhesive failure) or the seals may have dried out and cracked in two. For the glued seam boxes, I have seen instances of glue becoming old and no longer holding the box together.
I have observed random instances of different copies of the same set with different seal configurations. I even recall one set where every copy obtained was shrink wrapped.
For the plastic cans, TLG used several seal types. Some were adequate for the expected 1-3 year shelf life, and some exhibited failure coming out of the factory cases. I have seen seals which were easily torn, and I have seen seals that lost their ability to remain adhered.
None of the above implies that a set is used, more correctly it implies a ‘degraded seal’. Time is not friendly to LEGO seals.
What this all leads to is this … with the passage of time, my inventory is degrading (as to passing the seal test). This has led to some consternation with buyers. Buyers either don’t understand what happens over two decades, or they have some reason for requiring a seal that has withstood the test of time (as tho it was manufactured yesterday). Many of those same buyers are not buying for personal consumption, they are attempting to buy for resale or collectability.
I am left with the quandary of how to describe these sets. I do not have the time to dig thru my inventory and try to sort out sealed vs failed seals. It’s not going to happen. Even if I did. The seal situation is fluid, and will continue to evolve after the triage. New/Complete doesn’t feel right either. We have no descriptive verbiage for New/Degraded-Seal.
My second concern will be described in another post.
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Comments
I have recently run into the same problem with Lego house sets, that too have a few years or at least some time on it. So even though it is new, those "seals" starts to open by it self.
Now in my view to make it easy to start with. IF everything INSIDE is sealed and in "new" condition, i would mark the set as "New/sealed" since the bricks are and everything else.
Then as a general message, i would maybe write a note on the front page of my shop explaining what i have and so on. But also just as a "public note" on every set, have a "standard" note about "might have some wear and tare" because of age.
Then you have a baseline for your products and if it is, people can ask for pictures or more info about the specific set.
Because as you write, the lego boxes may get exposed to the "world" in all it's glory, and nothing last forever. So when buyers get something that are more than just 4-5 years old. I would suspect some form of wear. But maybe that is just me.
So as a sum up, it is all about the communication from you / us the sellers to "cover" our shop and what we offer. And we have more than one place to write about what we sell :-)
It is also about buyers, who are intentionally seeking the best that they can lay hands on, and at the lowest price. By selling competitively, I’m attracting those buyers. And they have little, or no, interest in opening the set and building the model. Whether they are willing to admit or not, they are buying for price appreciation.
Then I can make an informed decision based on my use case - if I'm an investor, I can decide if I care or not. If I know these sets super well as a collector, I'd be aware of the glue situation and likely not care. If I'm a builder, I really won't care, but I agree, there's not a huge demand signal for building really old sets I suspect (unless you have a Grand Carousel (with the music box) lying around, in which case, I'd love to talk to you! <g>).
Consider 'seal' - "a device or substance that is used to join two things together so as to prevent them from coming apart or to prevent anything from passing between them."
Essentially the purpose of a seal is mainly to close, bind etc.. the opening(s) of the box. In the context of buying and selling a product it also serves as a way to declare that the contents have not been touched or tampered with.
As you've noted, time is the enemy here and everything degrades. When as seal has become so degraded that it breaks, the seal thus becomes 'broken' and therefore it no longer can be called 'sealed' as it is no longer binding. In the retail world, even when a box has multiple seals... if one seal is broken it is considered an item with a broken seal, thereby... not "sealed".
Thus to me, it is therefore a complete set in a brand new condition. To say that it is in a sealed state would be, put simply, false. If someone purchased it expecting a sealed box, they will be sorely disappointed - something I'm sure you want to avoid.
The only thing you might like to do is make a note about how is WAS sealed but due to age has broken. It's all in the communication really... make sure the description says what the customer should expect and you *should* be ok.
More generally speaking, it also ignores the situation where the seller bought at clearance, from a retailer, and ended up with a random set that was purchased/pilfered/returned. If the miscreants were incredibly careful with how they unsealed it and resealed it, the seller will never see it from the outside. I’ve had that happen once or twice.
The most singularly unhappy transaction that I have ever been involved with, was a Toy Story set, purchase with an address of an Oregon freight forwarder. The set almost certainly went to China/HK. The buyer left positive FB, then several weeks later all H broke lose, when I was being accused of sending out a used set. I lost the PayPal dispute, but got back a package, which contained a different copy of the set (same set number). I could tell they were different, because the outbound photos I took caught the production run number (on the vinyl seal) and the one returned was from a different production run. I was never able to determine if the scam was perpetrated by the person placing the order, or if they were doing drop shipping to a final customer within their country (as the freight forwarder shields the final destination address). I refuse orders where I do not know who is the final recipient, due to that incident.